Review by Mark Sieber

Darkest Heart
A Sonja Blue Novel

Written by Nancy A. Collins
White Wolf Publishing
Trade Paperback
$11.95

Approach any discerning group of horror fiction fans these days with a vampire novel and you're likely to get a reaction similar to one of yelling "Fire!" in a gunpowder factory. Ever since the phenomenal success of Anne Rice's vampire books, the Goth subculture has skyrocketed and bloodsuckers have become all too commonplace in the literature that we love. It's kind of sad, because I always liked vampire stories and they've become the trendy stereotype of horror fiction. Sure, there are many exceptional vampire novels that have been published over the last fifteen or twenty years: Robert McCammon's They Thirst, S.P. Somtow's amazing Vampire Junction series, George R.R. Martin's breathtaking Fevre Dream, Christopher Golden's Shadows Trilogy, Ray Garton's Live Girls and Lot Lizards, Skipp & Spector's The Light at the End, Richard Laymon's The Traveling Vampire Show…I may have forgotten a few, but you get the picture. As usual, the good stuff is Out There; you just have to cull through the mire to find it.

Back in the 1980s, during the heralded "boom" era in horror fiction, a new breed of horror began being published. It was media hip and fast paced, violent and seemed to be driven by a pounding rock backbeat. For a while, it seemed like a sort of boy's club. A bit of criticism was directed at it, but it wasn't the guys' fault that mostly males were doing this stuff. Nancy Collins broke into the scene with one hell of a bang with her debut novel, Sunglasses After Dark. This powerful novel won the Stoker as Best First Novel, and by all accounts I've heard it almost won Best Novel as well. Sunglasses introduced the world to ultra hip vampire, Sonja Blue. Though, she wasn't quite a vampire. See, she was physically and spiritually raped by a vampire and died on the spot. Before she resurrected as a vampire, she was found immediately and was rushed to the hospital and given a full blood transfusion. So, Sonja wasn't exactly a vampire, but she sure wasn't human, or alive for that matter, either. She needed blood to survive, but she was immune to silver. Sonja despised her creator and went upon a mission to avenge her "death" and to eliminate as many vampires as possible.

Sonja Blue, in her omnipresent leather jacket and dark sunglasses, carries a silver straight razor that she uses to dispatch vampires that she hunts. These creatures of the night are often found in Goth-oriented clubs and various other pseudo hip nightspots. The scenes in the Sonja Blue stories that take place in such places are filled with subtle humor, as Nancy slices through the façade of the Gothic lifestyle.

Though Sonja Blue has had to face her vampiric creator and many powerful foes, her greatest enemy resides within herself. "The Other" is what she calls the greedy, evil darkside of her psyche. Though she loathes The Other, she usually releases it when she fights her most difficult opponents.

The world of Sonja Blue is occupied by more than vampires. Shapeshifters, demons, voodoo practitioners and other supernatural beings populate it. The only mortals who can see these creatures are poets, drunks and madmen.

Longtime readers of Nancy Collins' Sonja Blue stories might be a bit disappointed by the beginning of Darkest Heart. The prologue was originally published as a chapbook by Crossroads Press and was included as a part of the third Sonja Blue novel, Paint It Black. I didn't mind though, it helped me familiarize myself with the feel of the characters and the landscape of the terrain. Also, the events in it are critical to the conclusion of this new work.

This time, Sonja develops and uneasy relationship with a vampire hunting human who had his family destroyed by a strega, or a vampire who was created by sorcery, rather than the conventional biting of the neck. The creature's past is recounted in Darkest Heart and it shows Nancy's strength at writing fiction in a historical setting. Blackheart was conceived around the year 1000 and these are among the most gripping pages of the novel. The intrepid pair do indeed find the "blackest heart", but he is waiting, and has altogether different plans for their union.

Fans of the previous Sonja Blue books will undoubtedly enjoy this new installment. Those who haven't experienced it yet are encouraged to get the 10th Anniversary Edition of Sunglasses After Dark, published by White Wolf. However, Darkest Heart can be enjoyed on its own legs, I just happen to prefer reading series fiction in proper order, for a more enriching reading experience.

Fans of Nancy Collins' fiction should be aware that Cemetery Dance Publications has recently published a collection of her Southern Gothic stories, entitled Knuckles and Tales. Crossroads Press has published a deluxe omnibus edition of Sonja Blue fiction as Dead Roses For a Blue Lady. These, and many other fine books can be found at Shocklines, the best horror bookstore in existence.